Day o Fun in Brown County

Thursday was a day of very little writing...but much other fun!!

Ronda came to visit - and I couldn't believe she'd never been to Brown County before! It's the very kind of place she loves and it floored me to find out she'd never been there!

When she first arrived, Rachel and I showed her around the cabin complex - including a trip to see the horses. One of the guys working on another cabin let Rachel help him take the horses out for the day. (They are the resident lawn mowers, so they move from yard to yard to tend to the grass.)
I even got to feed them some grass. (Grass for them...coffee for me...)

Romeo made an appearance while we were out. He was most interested in my coffee. No no, little doggie!!

He was really good at sitting - not too bad at shaking.

We ate a quick lunch at the cabin and then we went into Nashville to do a little shopping. This is one of my favorite stores...and here's one more reason why:

Rachel and Ronda - taking a break between stores.

Rachel inspired me to try on a hat. See, if I'd go this route, I could cut some SERIOUS time off my morning routine.

When we came back to the cabin, guess who came to visit?

Sit! Good dog!

Rachel "played" with Romeo. (She's much braver than I.)

Before Ronda had to go home, we roasted hot dogs and s'mores. I started a fire. Yep. Yours truly!! Without lighter fluid!

Some things were not meant to be kindling. Gasp!

Rachel fixed my fire.

Mama wasn't there to tell me not to play with matches...

Lots of matches.

Success! Rachel and Bekah's fire....complete with flames and smoke!

Hot dogs and potato salad - YUM.

And, of course, the s'more.

Someone burned her marshmallow.

Such a fun day! Loved it. Thanks, Ronda, for coming to visit us! We loved having you!

And that was pretty much our last vacation activity. We packed up the cabin that night and left the next morning. What a perfectly timed vacation. I came home ready to tackle my last week of work and then head into my brand new adventure!

Bekah Goes Hiking

The purpose of our trip to Brown County was to write. But we learned that you can't write every minute of every day - and stay sane. So...a couple of times, we ventured forth from the cabin to have a little fun.

Rachel LOVES being outside and she loves lakes and woods and trails and biking and such. Our cabin was just a couple of miles from Brown County State Park, so one day we took part of the afternoon to check out the park.
It was a beautiful sunny day but the heat index was nearing the 100 mark, I'm sure. We didn't wear shorts because we didn't want to get all scraped up by branches and poison ivy, but we definitely paid for that decision!

We hiked around Ogle Lake - which was about a mile and a half hike - but in the heat, it felt MUCH longer than that.

Stinks to be this tree!

Proof that I really was on the trails...because I know you didn't believe me.

Rachel checked out a little piece of another trail. I stayed on the one we were hiking. It was safer all around that way.

Isn't it just beautiful?

Despite the fact that I'm addicted to air conditioning, I really did enjoy our little excursion. Glad she wanted to go!

We found a dam. We're used to seeing ones made of concrete - not made by animals!

It has been a very rainy year here in Indiana, so there were some parts of this trail that were muddy and/or flooded that weren't supposed to be. Thought you might like to see me trying my hand at walking over a log. Heaven help us all.

Just call me Grace.

The Amish Chipmunk. (He didn't want his picture taken.)

This is the lake we hiked around. GORGEOUS.

And this is just what you see in Brown County. It's stunning - especially in the fall. (That's when I usually go - interesting to see the trees actually looking green!)

Thanks, Rachel, for taking me on my first hiking trip. It was much fun. Maybe sometime we can try it again. Sans the heat index.

Brown County Top Ten

I wanted to take a couple of days (okay...three) to share with you a little more about my writing retreat.

Several months ago, I came up with the idea to go on a writing retreat, and I had my eye on Maybelle’s cabin in Brown County. (I won’t post pictures of the cabin because you can go to their site to see the layout there – they just redecorated the whole thing and it’s adorable!)

A few weeks ago, I invited Rachel to go with me. Being a fellow writer, I knew she would love it and I wanted to share it with her as a graduation gift! Today I want to show you some of the fun we had around the cabin. I made a top ten list – but in no particular order.

1. HOT TUB! We had this hot tub on our back deck, and we spent about a half hour out there every night.
It is a secret dream of mine to one day have a hot tub at my house. I find them so relaxing. (And you get lots of friends who want to hang out with you if you have a hot tub.)
2. TV! You'll notice a lot of blankets and hoodies in these pictures. Rachel and I kept the temp in the cabin right at 65 degrees. Freezing - and perfect in every way. Anyway. We had satellite TV, so when our brains needed to take a break from the writing process, we kicked back and watched TV.

Rachel got me hooked on America's Got Talent while we were there. HILARIOUS show. Do you watch it? If not - you should start.

3. READING! An important thing for a writer is to fill up on reading! I kicked back in my big comfy bed with the pillow top mattress and down comforter...and read...and read...and read. No reason to feel guilty for it - wasn't like I had chores to do!

Rachel did some reading as well...little bit of advice from Stephen King.

4. WRITING! Obviously this is the reason we were there. This darling little desk was mine for the week - couldn't have been more perfect!

But you know...the writing is just as good anywhere!

5. COOKING! Rachel and I are both electric stove cooker girls - so this whole open flame thing was new for us.

But we didn't set anything (or anyone) on fire!

6. MORNING COFFEE! Oh. My. Goodness. This is how it should be every day. Coffee at 9 out in the sunshine with the little waterfall running to the side....

7. JOURNALING! In addition to the 27,305 words I wrote on the computer, I did a good amount of journaling. LOVED the time of reconnecting with the Lord while I was there. He can be heard well in a woods.

8. GAMES! Rachel answered questions from this game...

...and I answered questions from this one. Proud indeed.

9. VISITORS! We had lots of visitors at our cabin this week. Check this out. Mr. Froggie - on the window beside Rachel's bed:

Mr. Cardinal:

Mr. (or perhaps Mrs?) Butterfly:

The resident miniature horses...Rachel loved them.

And last but NOT least - Romeo. He knew how to let himself in and parked right next to the doggie treat jar.

10. BATHROOM! We were, after all, in the woods:

Okay, just kidding. THIS was our tub.

It was the perfect spot for a getaway. Just a mile from the little town of Nashville, so if we needed something (like a Polar Pop) - we could have it in about five minutes, but we felt like we were miles away from everything - all nestled at the top of a hill. Truly relaxing. We highly recommend this cabin (or the Robinwood right next to it...where I stayed a couple of years ago with Julie Crandall) if you're looking for a quiet spot to escape.

It's the Weekly Recap!

*Sunday, after I participated in the Father’s Day festivities, Rachel and I left for a week-long writing retreat to Brown County (in southern Indiana). We booked a cabin, packed our suitcases, and arrived early in the evening at our darling cabin. We took it easy that first evening, learning where all the light switches were (seriously!), watching America’s Got Talent, and trying out the fantastic hot tub! * Monday we started the writing festivities, took a break at lunch time to drive into the little town of Nashville (about a mile from our cabin) and have lunch at a pizza place, and enjoyed a relaxing day. That evening I made baked potato soup and Oreo cupcakes (at Rachel’s request) to celebrate her graduation from IWU. Oh – and we visited the hot tub.

* Tuesday we spent more time writing, but we took a break in the afternoon to go over to Brown County State Park to do a little hiking. Yes, you read that right. I hiked. On trails. In dirt. Don’t believe me? Check this out!

That night, Rachel did the cooking - yummy breakfast burritos! And we topped off the evening with the hot tub!!

* Wednesday we stayed in almost the whole day and I wrote…and wrote…and wrote. I think when all was said and done, I was just short of 30,000 words for the week. I was very pleased with that. Even though we didn’t venture out too much that day, we saw some absolute beauty around the cabin – like this little guy. Isn’t he pretty?

Guess what else we did? HOT TUB!!!

* Ronda came to visit us on Thursday – and we were so excited to see her. We went back into Nashville to do some shopping, we spent some time in the hot tub (shocker), and had a cookout in our sweet fire pit. It was our busiest day, by far, but also so much fun. Thanks for visiting us, Ronda! That night we relaxed with some TV and then started cleaning up and packing. Sadness indeed.

* Friday we packed up and drove home - arriving home in the early afternoon. Back to reality. And a couple of cats who had apparently missed me quite a bit. I spent most of the day catching up on blogs, emails, facebook, and TV shows. And that night I ran into a friend of mine at the dollar store...which led into a four hour catching-up fest. That was a fun and spontaneous surprise!

* Saturday was the day of bridal showers for Miss Olivia. She was in town for the weekend, so there were two different showers. After going on a wild goose chase looking for the first one, I finally arrived before the gift giving festivities. The second shower was her personal shower - SO fun. Love this girl!
Books I’m Reading: I kept up with both Sparkling Gems from the Greek and Jesus Calling this week. I also read a chapter in Entrusting Your Dreams to God, started a book I bought years ago, but haven't read yet: Forever in Love with Jesus, and FINISHED The Hole in Our Gospel. Overall I thought it was a pretty good book. I enjoyed the beginning more than the middle - and it was a very long book - but I'm glad I read it. God used it in part of my journey.

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: My world has been so busy lately with all the job/house stuff that I’ve felt completely disconnected from the Lord. I loved being at the cabin this week and having so many moments to sit alone with Him. My favorite came Thursday morning as I tried to awaken (always a struggle) and I heard Him say “Do you trust Me to be enough for you?” I loved that.

Update on Last Week’s Goals: Obviously you can see I got quite a bit of reading done, and at just under 30,000 words, I think we can call the writing a success!

Goals for the Coming Week: It's my last week of work at IWU, so I want to finish well and enjoy all the final moments of that chapter of my life. I also have some serious work to do around the house, cleaning things up and packing things away in preparation for the house being shown and hopefully SOLD soon!

And Then it Was Father's Day

Remember how on Mother's Day, I hosted a festive lunch, complete with balloons?

So for Father's Day...I scheduled a vacation. For me. Not for Dad. What kind of daughter am I??

Okay to try to make myself sound a little less horrible...here's how that went. I wanted to schedule a week-long writing retreat, and the cabin where I wanted to stay only had so many options for an entire week being open. In addition, I needed to use up my vacation days before the end of June...and everyone else in my office was trying to do the same thing. So I was really limited on when I could go. Leaving on Father's Day was about the only choice I had.

But I made sure I stayed around to celebrate the holiday before I went on my journey. There. Am I forgiven??

Lunch was at Mom and Dad's house, and we were joined by Aunt B and Sandi, who is a good friend of Mom and Dad's.
Aunt B brought a plate of her FANTABULOUS caramel surprise brownies. Not the fake version like I make. The REAL ones. Oh. My. Word.

This is Dad, guessing what his gift is. A Lowe's gift card, of course. And this year I DIDN'T get him one that said "just married." (That's what I gave him last year - just to be funny.)

Dad and me...and I'm wearing an outfit that looks suspiciously like the one I wore on Mother's Day. It occurred to me DURING church Sunday morning that it was the same outfit. Good grief. It's not like I don't have any clothes!

I have to say - Dad is pretty good to me. This week while I was gone, he ushered my car around to the mechanic, checked on my thought-it-was-broken mower, and even mowed a bit of the yard for me. He takes good care of me. Happy Father's Day (again), Dad!